Harry Potter arrives on Kindle

Amazon.com has struck a deal with author J.K. Rowling to distribute all seven of the best-selling Harry Potter titles on the Kindle and via Kindle mobile applications.

Interestingly, in order for customers to purchase a Harry Potter book they must first establish an account on Rowling’s ebook store, known as Pottermore Shop. All transactions then occur on Rowling’s site. Amazon.com writes on a help page explaining the new service.

When you visit one of the Harry Potter product detail pages on Amazon.com, you will see a “Buy at Pottermore” button on the right hand side of your screen. Clicking this button will take you to the product detail page for the same book at the Pottermore Shop.

The agreement shows the power of Rowling to negotiate her own deals, with The Wall Street Journal reporting that the author will obtain most of the revenue because she retained digital publishing rights. A similar deal has not been struck with Apple’s electronic book store, though users of Apple devices will be able to access the books through the Kindle app and other e-reader apps. The e-books sell for between $7.99 and $9.99 on the Pottermore Shop.

“For years our customers have loved reading Harry Potter books in print, and have made them the best-selling print book series on Amazon.com,” said Russ Grandinetti, Vice President of Kindle Content. “We’re excited that Harry Potter fans worldwide are now able to read J.K. Rowling’s fantastic books on their Kindles and free Kindle reading apps.”

John Cook is GeekWire's co-founder and editor, a veteran reporter and the longest-serving journalist on the Pacific Northwest tech startup beat. Follow him @johnhcook and email john@geekwire.com.

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Comments

Its funny. Everyone is acting like this is an exclusive Amazon / JK Rowling agreement. Barnes & Noble has the same agreement and shopping experience.

Anonymous

This is exciting! The process for getting the books is a bit complicated though. Here is a blog post that shows the step-by-step for Kindle http://www.freebooksy.com/blog/2012/3/27/harry-potter-ebooks-for-your-kindle-finally.html